Le Duan

Le Duan

Lê Duẩn (7 April 1907 – 10 July 1986) was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1950s, and was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the 3rd Congress of the Workers Party of Vietnam. He continued Hồ Chí Minh's policy of ruling through collective leadership. From 1958 until his death in 1986, he was the top decision-maker in Vietnam.

Born into a lower-class family in Quảng Trị province, French Indochina as Lê Văn Nhuận; little is known about Le Duan's family and childhood. He first came in contact with Marxist literature in the 1920s through his work as a railway clerk. Le Duan was a founding member of the Indochina Communist Party (the future Communist Party of Vietnam) in 1930, but was arrested the following year, in 1931. He spent six years in jail until he was released in 1937. From 1937 to 1939 he worked himself up the party ladder; but he was rearrested in 1939, this time for fomenting an uprising in the South. Le Duan was released from jail following the successful communist-led August Revolution.

During the First Indochina War, Le Duan active in a communist cadre in the South. He headed the Central Office of South Vietnam, a Communist Party organ, from 1951 until 1954. During the 1950s Le Duan became increasingly aggressive towards the South and called for reunification through war. By the mid-to-late 1950s Le Duan had become the second-most powerful policy-maker within the Communist Party, eclipsing former party First Secretary Trường Chinh. By 1960, at the 3rd Party Congress, he had become General Secretary and, because of his office, officially become the second-most powerful party member, after Hồ Chí Minh, the party chairman. Throughout the 1960s Hồ's health began to decline, and Le Duan took over more of his responsibilities. On 2 September 1969, Hồ died and Le Duan became the most powerful decision-maker in Vietnam.

Throughout the Vietnam War, Le Duan had held an aggressive posture against the Americans. Attack, rather than a defensive strategy, was to be the key to victory. When Vietnam finally won the war in 1975, Le Duan and his associates were overly optimistic about the future. The Second Five-Year Plan (1976–1980) was a failure, and after it the Vietnamese economy was in dire crisis. To make matters worse, Vietnam was headed by a gerontocracy (in which the rulers are much older than the population average). Vietnam became internationally isolated during Le Duan's rule; the country had invaded Cambodia and ousted Pol Pot from power (which was internationally condemned), engaged in a short war with China and had become dependent on Soviet economic aid. Le Duan died in 1986 and was succeeded by Trường in July 1986; Trường was in turn succeeded by Nguyễn Văn Linh in December later that year.